


The One Where Work is Dangerous

by justfandomthings



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Hurt Steve, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, McDanno Gift Exchange 2018, Set in season 8 somewhere, Worried Danny "Danno" Williams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 22:50:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17150558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justfandomthings/pseuds/justfandomthings
Summary: Coming to terms with the dangers of their job is difficult when the person you love is constantly getting hurt. When Steve gets injured trying to protect Danny, Danny's composure snaps and he pulls away to try to save his heart from being broken. Life (aka bad guys) have other plans.





	The One Where Work is Dangerous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheLittleRedWhoCouldWrite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLittleRedWhoCouldWrite/gifts).



> I was uncertain of the route I wanted this fic to take so over the series of several drabbles- all placed in chronological order and relating to the one prior to it. 
> 
> Wrote for the prompt: hurt/comfort, hurt!Steve

There's a click, the sound of a trigger as the wire is pulled to it's brink and snaps, and then a bellow. _“Bomb!”_

Steve grabs Danny around the waist with his arm, pulls his partner behind him, and in the same movement, he lunges, lurching into Danny and sending them both flying off the porch of the house they were about to raid.

The sound of the explosion echoes around them in the following moments.

“Steve!” Danny cries out in between coughs, smoke swirling in the air around him and making it hard to breathe. _“Steve!”_

He rolls onto his back and turns his head, eyes widening in fear at the sight of his partner lying motionless a couple of feet to his left.

His own aches and pains forgotten, Danny strains onto his knees and crawls over to his limp partner, desperately reaching for a pulse even though his eyes have already noted the slow but steady rise and fall of Steve's chest.

Blue eyes scan the length of Steve's body, taking note of every scrape, every cutosion, every likely place of injury. Steve's arm is bent unnaturally and there's a bleeding cut on the side of his head- most likely the reason for his unconscious state.

“You stupid fucking Neanderthal,” Danny swears, his voice wet with tears in a way that he'll never admit to anyone except himself in a lonely moment. “You shouldn't have put yourself between me and the blast.”

Around them, neighbors from nearby houses are stepping out of their homes and running over with their phones out, probably already on the phone with 911.

Danny looks down at his unconscious partner and feels something clench in his chest.

One second slower of reflexes and a head wound would have been the _best_ of Steve's injuries. One second slower and Steve may not have even survived, may not have moved himself out of the way of the blast in time.

Shuddering, Danny closes his eyes.

_How many more near-death experiences can Steve come out of on top before he loses?_

The fear of _I don't know_ steals Danny's breath away in the same instant he realizes he doesn't know what he'd do if Steve were to die.

 

“Talk to me, Danno!” Steve says with a hint of desperation, if not anger, in his voice as he follows his partner towards their car. “You can't just tell me you're upset with me and then not tell me why!”

“No? Cause I think that's exactly what I just did and am going to continue doing!”

A hand touches his arm, fingers wrapping around his wrist, and Danny comes to an abrupt halt, whirling around with not-very-well disguised fury (fear) in his eyes.

“Let go of me!” Danny snarls, snatching his arm out of Steve's grip. “If you can't figure out what's bothering me then I'm sure as hell not gonna be the one to get it through your thick skull!”

He storms away from Steve, throws the door to the Camaro open, climbs inside, and slams the door shut. The engine starts and just before Danny screeches away from the curb, he rolls down the window and says, “Find your own way back to the office.”

Steve stands there, confused and hurting, for almost a full minute before a quiet cough behind him has him straightening his shoulders and erasing the defeat from his stature.

“You scared him, boy,” Lou says, watching the road and not Steve as he talks. “Today's stunt with the suspect was efficient but not necessary and he's upset because you got hurt needlessly because of it.”

Steve glances down at his arm and the bandage there. “It's just a scrape!” he protests.

“And he knows that, same as how he also knows that when you got shot and went flying backwards out of his line of sight, it looked like you'd been shot in the chest, not the arm.” Lou gives him a stern look. “Try and see it from his perspective and if you can't, think of what your reaction would have been had you seen him get shot and then go down.”

He doesn't flinch but it's a near thing.

“Give him some time to cool down, to come to terms with the fact that he could have lost you again, and then go find him,” Lou says. “I'd bring a six-pack.”

A couple of hours later, Steve lets himself into Danny's place, entering the little place he considers a second home quietly but still loud enough to announce his arrival. To his surprise, he finds Danny's nowhere in sight, but Grace is.

“Gracie?” he says, entering the living room to get a closer look at the young woman sitting on the sofa watching TV. “You okay? Where's Danno?”

“He's in bed, says he doesn't feel well,” she says with a frown, looking up at him. Steve can see the concern there and frowns, heart hurting. He hates when his ohana is hurting and it's even worse knowing that it's because of him that they are.

“I'm gonna go check on him, okay?”

Grace scans him briefly with her eyes, sighing when she sees the bandage on his arm. “That's why,” she mutters under her breath.

Steve frowns. “What's why?”

“You got shot,” she says plainly, going for nonchalant and failing miserably. Steve hears the wobble in her voice and feels his heart clench. “You got shot and Danno's upset about that because he couldn't protect you.”

“Hey, I'm okay,” Steve reassures. “The bullet just grazed me.”

“This time,” she mutters.

Steve can't take the wobble in her voice any longer and moves closer, kneeling on the ground in front of the sofa so she's sat in front of him. “Look at me,” he requests quietly. She does after a moment and it breaks his heart to see the tears welling in her eyes. “What your dad and I do is dangerous. Every day, I take calculated risks based on the situation, the severity of it, and what needs to get done. I'm a trained SEAL, that's what I was trained to do. Yeah, I get hurt a lot, but that's sometimes necessary to stop the bad guys. And unless there's really no other way, I'm gonna find a different plan if my current options look too bleak so I don't get severely hurt. Okay? I know it's scary but I need you to trust me on that one.”

“You're always hurt, though,” she sniffles. “I hate that, Danno does too.”

“You know why I won't allow myself to get killed on the job?”

When she shakes her head, Steve waits until her eyes are on him before he says, “Because I have a family to come home to.”

With a barely stifled sob, she throws herself at him. Steve grunts lightly at the impact but catches her in his arms, holding her close as she shakes silently.

His arm aches at the strain but he ignores it. Comforting Grace is worth the stress on his arm.

He stays with her for a good half hour before he leaves her on the sofa so he can check on her father. When he enters the bedroom, there's an unmoving Danny-sized lump buried under the covers. Lou's words about imagining his partner shot echo in his mind and Steve's moving towards the bed before he's even aware of what he's doing.

Steve puts one knee on the bed and reaches over cautiously, touching Danny's shoulder. “You okay?” he murmurs. “Grace says you've not feeling well.”

“Fine,” Danny says shortly. But he doesn't sound mad anymore, just resigned.

Steve sighs. “I'm sorry for worrying you.”

“Shut up.”

“Danny-”

“I don't want to talk about it and you're making my head hurt worse so you should just leave.”

“Do you want me to?”

There's a pause where Steve thinks Danny might say no and then Danny says, voice carefully neutral, “Considering I never wanted you here to begin with, yeah, I want you to leave.”

Something aches in Steve’s chest at Danny’s words but he resolutely ignores that as he stands and says quietly, “Feel better, partner.”

 

Things are tense between them after that. They both pretend not to notice but when their attempts at banter end with sharp comments with a bite that's not fake, it's hard to ignore the truth.

All Steve can figure out is that Danny is trying to create distance between them- why, he isn't sure. But he knows it hurts, more than he’s willing to admit to himself, because he's always been used to being alone so now that he is…

He's realizing that with Danny around, he wasn't alone.

“Have you spoken to the man?” Lou demands one morning as Steve is moping around the palace, trying to make it seem like he's not missing his partner even though he is.

“I've tried but he doesn't want to talk about it.” Steve sighs. “He's tired of me,” he murmurs without meaning to.

Lou punches him in the shoulder.

“What was that for?” Steve snaps, turning to glare at the man.

“He gave you half his liver and you think the man is tired of you?” Lou rolls his eyes.

“That was two years ago,” Steve points out.

“And since then you've begun trying to open a restaurant together. You have a stocking at his house for Christmas, you tuck his kids in to bed and they think of you as an uncle, he thinks of you as a second father to his kids, and you think he's anything but head over heels for you?” Lou walks away muttering something about “stupid southern kids" who "need to learn to read a situation of love."

Steve stares after him, feeling lost. Where did Lou get the idea that Danny is “head over heels” for him?

_Is it possible…_

No. That's ridiculous. Just because Steve is in love with his partner and, therefore, utterly miserable at their current distance from each other, doesn't mean that Danny feels the same way.

 

Everything goes to hell the next day when Danny doesn't show up to work. When ten minutes go by, Steve thinks there's traffic and Danny will be in soon complaining about Hawaii and it's traffic.

When twenty minutes goes by, he tries Danny’s cell. He's sent directly to voicemail and dejectedly tells himself that his partner doesn't want to talk to him so he's been ignored.

But ten minutes later, when Junior comes and asks him where his partner is, Steve finally admits to himself that he's worried and has him and Tani track Danny’s cell.

“It says he's at home,” Tani says with a frown. “Danny doesn't sleep in, boss. He may not be a morning person but he's up at six or seven every morning, eight at the absolite latest."

“I know,” Steve murmurs absently, checking his pocket for his car keys as he makes his way to the door.

When he gets to Danny’s apartment and let's himself in, the stillness of the apartment strikes a nerve. Unsettled, Steve pulls out his gun and silently makes his way around the apartment.

A thump from the bedroom has Steve stalking forward quickly but carefully. He gets to the bedroom door and pushes it open slowly, freezing when he sees his partner lying bound and gagged and _still_ in the middle of his bed.

“Danny!” he cries out, running forward, only to be blindsided when he's run into from the side, his attacker crashing to the ground with him.

Steve lands and rolls, getting to his feet and swinging his gun at his attacker’s head. His attempt is blocked and a book is thrown at his face in retaliation.

The book stings as it bruises his cheek, settling Steve off balance, but as he gets to his feet and throws himself at his attacker, he catches sight of Danny lying unconscious on the bed and is fueled with fury and fear, causing him to put his all into the fight.

He sends his attacker into the bookcase, then pulls him forward by the collar of his shirt and slams his head into the bookcase.

The man weakens in his arms and then kicks Steve's legs out from under him. Steve goes down hard, the man landing on top of him and immediately going for his throat.

Due to the angle and the sudden stabbing pain in his arm, Steve can only struggle from under the man to get his arms free so he can force the man's hands away from his throat. Black spots are appearing when the man suddenly goes lax on top of him with a pained grunt. A thump follows a moment later, pressure landing on Steve's legs.

Coughing, Steve shoves the man off of him and stares up at the ceiling. With his non-stinging arm, he reaches for his partner, who is sprawled across his legs.

“Danny?” he says hoarsely.

But his partner has no words for him, only a muffled sound.

 _The gag_. Steve forces himself into a seated position and reaches for the pocketknife in his boot, quickly cutting the bonds tying Danny's hands and feet together before he takes out the gag.

“You okay?” Steve demands desperately, eyes wide and scanning Danny's body for any signs of injuries. “Are you hurt?”

“Drugged,” Danny says weakly, voice slurred. “You ‘kay?”

Steve cradles his broken arm ( _again_ ) to his chest as he helps Danny sit up and lean against him. With his good hand, he reaches for Danny's neck, taking his pulse.

“Broke my arm, nothing else,” he promises. “You?”

“Drugged,” Danny says again, sounding tired. “I kicked him, he was hurtin’ you.”

“I know, buddy, you kicked him in the head and then landed on me.” Steve laughs but it's a wet laugh, hysterical at best, frightened at worst. “You didn't come in and I thought you were just mad at me still and it took me thirty minutes to realize something was wrong…”

“Not mad,” Danny sighs. “Scared.”

Steve's brow furrows. “Scared why?”

“I can't lose you.” Danny's voice sounds small. “I realized that when you got knocked out in the blast protecting me and I didn't know how to...how to…” He trails off, head falling limply to Steve's chest.

“Danny?” Fear clutches at Steve's heart and he acts unconsciously, reaching to feel for a pulse with his bad hand. He has to grit his teeth at the pain, which he resolutely ignores as he scrambles to make sure his partner is still alive.

“I was bait,” Danny whispers, sounding near tears. “He broke in and I tried to fight him but I lost...I was bait for you.”

The thought of someone going after his family for the sole purpose of getting to him is infuriating. Steve subconsciously clutches his partner closer to him, shuddering at the realization that Danny could have been much more severely hurt or kidnapped entirely in the effort to get to him. It's unsettling and he hates the feeling of dread that wells in his chest.

“I'm sorry,” Danny whispers.

“Love you, bud, it's okay.” Steve squeezes Danny's shoulder with his hand before shifting so he can get them to a standing position.

Danny slumps at his words and doesn't repeat them back like he usually does. Steve frowns, feeling hurt and ignoring that fact as he helps his pale and shaking partner to the bed. Then he calls Junior and 911.   


“Danny?” Steve calls softly, pushing the door to his bedroom open as he enters the room and heads for the bed. “You okay?”

“Fine,” Danny mumbles. “Tired. Head hurts.”

Steve sits on the edge of the bed and looks down at the lump hiding under the blankets. “The sedative is out of your system but the effects will last for a few more hours,” he says guiltily.

“Lose the aneurysm face,” Danny says in a voice that is muffled from the blankets covering him and the fact that he's got his face half-buried in a pillow. “It's not your fault some jackass dunce decided trying to take us on was his idea of fun.”

“What're you saying, exactly?”

“I'm saying that we can't control what knumbskull criminals decide to do in their spare time.”

There's some shuffling as Danny shifts under the covers and then his face comes into view as he opens his eyes and squints up at Steve. “How's your arm?”

Steve shrugs a little. “The whole cast thing is getting old.”

“Try for a sling next time.”

Steve raises an eyebrow. “Are you telling me to get hurt?”

Danny glares, then winces, and the glare falls from his features, though his voice is no less stern as he says, “Absolutely not, you Neanderthal. That's a stupid question. I've come to terms with the fact that danger is your middle name and a part of our lives; that, like it or not, you're gonna get hurt and I won't be able to stop it from happening, that you won't be able to either, sometimes. So, in that statement, I was merely acknowledging the facts of our job and resigning myself to them. That's all.”

Steve ponders those words for a moment but says nothing. There's nothing to say in response, really. So he pats Danny's shoulder with his good hand, telling his partner solemnly, “Try and get some sleep. You should feel better when you wake up.”

“I still think I should be on the sofa,” Danny yawns. “You're the one who needs the bed, anyway.”

“For a broken arm? Nah, you're better off with it. ‘Sides, if the thought of me on the sofa bothers you so much, I could always sleep with you,” Steve suggests with a smirk.

“I'm at least a three date guy,” Danny informs him even as he slides over in the bed and make a room for Steve to lay. “So, this? Purely platonic until that point.”

The bedroom is silent for one deadly moment and then Steve asks quietly, “And after the third date?”

“Then sex is allowed and I'm acknowledging the non-platonic spark.”

“Did you sneak a beer when I wasn't looking?”

Danny opens his eyes to stare at him. “What kind of question is that?”

Steve shrugs helplessly. “We never talk about it, Danno, what else am I supposed to think when you suddenly start confessing your feelings left and right to me?”

“That this was a long time coming and go along with it?” Danny sounds annoyed and, maybe, a tad bit pissed too. “When the doctors said you needed a liver transplant in order to live, I agreed to give you half of mine without hesitation because the thought of losing you was too horrible to consider. When I'm upset, you're the person I turn to. My kids consider you a second father. You and I have been flirting for _years,_ always hinting at this spark between us, hell, even letting it ignite sometimes, but then always making sure to put it out before something more can actually develop. And I just spent three hours tied up in bed feeling completely helpless and weak as this son of a bitch excuse for a man paced my bedroom and planned _out loud in detail_  what he was going to do to you when he captured you. So, yeah, this may seem like a lot of talking when we've tried so hard to ignore it but all I know is, I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the pretending when our time on this earth isn't guaranteed or certain so, really, all were doing is wasting the time we do have by pretending there's nothing there when there really is.”

Utterly spent, Danny slumps into the cushions of Steve’s bed and closes his eyes. He's said his piece, now Steve can process and either accept the truth in his words or deny him and make him leave.

There's a soft sigh from above him and then a quiet, “I love you too, Danno.”

Danny blinks his eyes open again just as Steve reaches for him and strokes his cheek with his fingers before carefully brushing tousled hair away from his eyes.

“Yeah, love you too,” Danny says, struggling to contain his smile despite the way his head is pounding. “Now, lay down before you give me a height complex. You're too tall right now.”

Steve laughs and settles in next to him, hesitating only for a moment before he wraps his good arm around Danny's shoulders and pulls him against his body. Danny is a warm, familiar weight at his side, one that makes Steve smile as he lightly rubs Danny's arm with his hand.

There's a lot more talking to be done, but…

But Steve is hopeful that this is the beginning of something special between them.

 

BONUS:

(This takes place a few weeks later. Grace doesn't yet know that Danny and Steve have begun dating and so when Danny has a migraine as part of a cold, she tells Steve that the hormone oxytocin is released during cuddling, which is something she thinks Steve should do to make Danny feel better. That conversation (and followed advice) is the precursor to this):

It's a deep-bone weariness, one that makes his limbs feel limp and his eyelids feel heavy that causes Steve to relinquish his control over to Danny. And Danny, for his part, doesn't say anything about it, just accepts the keys silently from Steve's hand as he helps Steve into the passenger side of the car.

Steve sinks into the leather seat and closes his eyes, not even bothering to buckle himself. He's airing on the wrong side of nauseous with a pounding headache and a humming tension behind his eyes; he has a migraine and really that's the only thing he can think about. Thinking hurts.

There's a huff of concern from above him before a cool hand is pressing to his forehead as another pulls his seatbelt on, then tugging on it so it’s only a gentle pressure against Steve's abdomen.

“Danny,” Steve murmurs, and even that sounds too loud to his own ears.

Fingers brush through his hair and Steve stiffens, expecting pain, but there's only a wave of comfort.

“I've got you,” Danny says, voice barely above a whisper. His hand pulls away a moment after that and then there's the softest of sounds as Danny shuts the door.

 _The car’s already running,_ Steve realizes when he hears the driver's door close gently to his left, followed momentarily after by the slow lurch of the Camaro moving.

Steve tries to calm his mind so he can block out the pain but the adrenaline rush from the case is wearing off, leaving him drained and defenseless.

He must drift off because when he becomes aware again, he's laying on something soft and warm, his head resting on a pillow, a cool washcloth covering his forehead. His head feels a fraction better, but he's still in numbing pain- not that he'd admit that to anyone but himself. And Danny.

Speaking of, as if Danny's noticed he's awake although he's yet to open his eyes, there's a slight dip in the bed at his side, followed shortly by the brush of fingers against his cheek.

“Hey,” Danny whispers. “Feeling better?”

Steve sighs in response, not really finding the energy required to talk.

“You took three tylonel a few hours ago, just so you know. You've been sleeping since then.” Danny's hand migrates to his head, fingers tugging lightly on Steve's hair.

Steve groans, deep and low in his throat, finding the touch is soothing and wanting more of it. But Danny freezes, and Steve can sense his concerned frown without even opening his eyes.

“Sorry.”

“No, feels nice,” Steve murmurs, forcing his eyes open so he can look up at his partner. Danny's eyes are dark and understanding, which Steve gets. This isn't the first time either one of them has had a paralyzing migraine like this; even a year into their partnership, Steve remembers caring for Danny when he’d had a migraine. Now that they're dating, they're much more intimate in the familiar and gentle way they try to bring comfort during the migraines.

Or any other kind of pain, for that matter.

“I'll keep doing it, then.”

Steve lets his eyes slide closed as Danny begins massaging his scalp again. “It should help,” Danny says quietly. “Release some oxytocin and help counter the pain.”

Despite the pain, Steve finds himself smiling. “That's going to be our answer for everything.”

“Oxytocin?” Danny sounds amused.

“Each other.”

“Sap,” Danny says immediately.

Steve shrugs slightly, then winces in pain. He feels Danny tug at the ends of his hair, then let his grip loosen to something softer, sweeter, and he moans something just barely above a preen.

“Gracie's a smart kid.” Danny sounds proud. “Sneaky too.” There's a pause and then a moment later, lips press against Steve's temple in an angel’s kiss. “Sleep,” Danny whispers. “I've got you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I want to wish @TheLittleRedWhoCouldWrite the very best of holidays and to everyone who read this story, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and holiday season too! x


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